I am still waiting for the actual quote that will be part of a signing statement by the Governor when he signs a bill outlawing any therapy that attempts to alter sexual orientation in minors.
Of course (and I am tired of having to say this every time) the inclination is not sinful but the acts are. Either way, whether inclination or act, homosexuality is intrinsically disordered. NJ and Governor Christie are outlawing any treatment for those with intrinsic disorders and making declarations on the the sinfulness of this or that. Separation of Church and state indeed.
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie plans to sign a bill Monday barring licensed therapists from trying to make gay minors straight.
New Jersey will be the second state to ban so-called conversion therapy, along with California.
The bill passed both houses of the Legislature with bipartisan support in June.
Gay activists pushing the ban were uncertain what Christie would do.
In a signing note accompanying the bill obtained by The Associated Press that will be made public Monday, Christie says he believes people are born gay and homosexuality is not a sin. That view is inconsistent with his Catholic faith.
August 20, 2013 at 5:29 pm
"Christie says he believes people are born gay and homosexuality is not a sin. That view is inconsistent with his Catholic faith."
This is just another example of how ignorant most journalists are about Catholicism. Christie is not appointing himself moral theologian here. The Catholic Church actually does teach that homosexuality is not a sin. Homosexual *acts* are sins. Unfortunately, our culture can't differentiate between desire and action, and it seems that has confused the author.
Now, whether Christie is appropriately applying Catholic teaching here is another matter. This kind of therapy is fraught with danger. It can work, some people have seen a shift in their desires and their "orientation." But it only seems to work for a rather small percentage of people. On the flip side, the promise of "healing" so often pushed by those who offer the therapy and the high percentage of people for whom it has no effect have lead to this kind of therapy having done tremendous harm in many people's lives. I don't think that is grounds for outlawing if – especially not for minors – but I do think that some regulation can still be reasonable.
August 20, 2013 at 6:55 pm
Personally I'm not a fan of outlawing it either. If a licensed therapist performs a quack therapy on a patient I think the solution should be malpractice law and licensing boards that decide what is and isn't acceptable as a medical treatment. I have no trust at all that politicians would be able to keep up with changes to scientific knowledge so there would be no reason to expect them to be timely about changing the law should medical knowledge change.
As for whether or not it 'can work', no one here has produced a single study indicating that it works for even a minority of those who try it. Part of the reason may be that there is a hodgepodge of different ideas drifting around so getting a rigerously defined therapy to examine might be nearly impossible.
August 21, 2013 at 12:48 am
I certainly do not agree with the governor's statement that homosexual acts are not sinful, but I do agree that sexual orientation is an innate and involuntary trait. I know, because I am gay and have been so for as long as I have been aware of my sexuality. I have also lived many years in Utah which is a bastion of sexual "conversion" therapy. I have known numerous LDS friends who were it's victims. I have heard first hand of the physical and deep psychological damage such quackery has inflicted on young men. It's easy to say that REAL professionals in this area who are dismissive of such "therapy" are all biased liberals, but that simply isn't the case. There is not an ounce of professionally reviewed scientific data to support the claim that sexual orientation can be changed. Heck even organizations that have long promoted it like Exodus International have now admitted what a failure it was and have apologized for the damage they did. I have a hard time believing that people seriously think that it can work or that sexual orientation is caused by environment or that it is a choice. It's like meeting someone who believes in alien abductions. It just baffles me.